5  Longtable

Tables that span multiple pages.

5.1 Syntax

To create a long table from a data frame

stable_long(stdata())

To create a long table from pipeline

st_new(data) %>% 
  stable_long()

To create a long table from pmtable

pt_cont_long(data, cols = "WT,EGFR") %>% 
  stable_long()

5.2 Basics

You can create longtables that span multiple pages of your pdf document. Tables using thelongtable environment are very different than the the basic table from stable() which are built using tabular environment.

5.3 Inserting longtable into your latex document

Once you have written your long table out to a file, you can source it into your latex document with a simple input command

\input{my-table.tex}

IMPORTANT

  • Do not wrap the input in \begin{table} / \end{table}; the table will not show up properly that way
  • Do not include any \caption{...} statement; the caption must be provided in a special way (see below)

5.4 Writing a caption

Longtable is different than regular tabular table in that the caption (and label) need to be included in the longtable environment. This means that you have to enter this information when you create the table.

5.4.1 Method 1: in the R script

stable_long() has an argument called lt_cap_text that will allow you to provide the text for the caption. This text must be passed to the stable_long() call (or st_make())

out <- stable_long(
  data, 
  lt_cap_text = "A long table (example 3)"
)

You will see in the TeX code that a caption is included in the longtable environment.

5.4.2 Method 2: as a TeX macro

Rather than passing the text for the caption, you can name a macro that should (will) be defined at the time the table is rendered in the TeX document.

Use the lt_cap_macro argument:

out <- stable_long(
  data, 
  lt_cap_macro = "ltexfourcap"
)

Now, there is a call to that macro in the table and you must define that macro prior to sourcing in your tex document.

\newcommand{\ltexfourcap}{
  Another long table - example 4  
}

\input{example4.tex}

5.5 Add a label

To add a label, pass in a caption (either as text or as a macro) and then use the lt_cap_label argument:

data %>% 
  stable_long(
    lt_cap_label = "tab:example", 
    lt_cap_macro = "example"
  )

5.6 Include a longtable in an Rmd document

If you want to dump a table into an R markdown document, pass it to st_asis(). There is a method for stable_long() and it will wrap the table properly.

out <- 
  data %>%
  stable_long() %>% 
  st_as_image()

5.7 Page breaks

Starting with version 0.4.1, pmtables will modify longtables so that panel headers are kept on the same page as the first row of data underneath the panel row.